If you're still on Google Hangouts, get ready to bid adieu. On Monday, Google detailed its plan to migrate Hangouts users to its replacement in the Google Chat app.
The migration already occurred for users on the enterprise-focused Workspace platform this spring. Now the company is kicking off the same process for all Google personal accounts by nudging any remaining Hangout users to try the Chat app.
“First, starting today, people using Hangouts on mobile will see an in-app screen asking them to move to Chat in Gmail or the Chat app,” Google says. “Similarly, people who use the Hangouts Chrome extension will be asked to move to Chat on the web or install the Chat web app.”
Later this summer, Google then plans on pulling the plug on the Hangouts mobile app and the Hangouts Chrome extension, according to a company support document.
Diehard users will still be able to access the Google Hangouts experience via the dedicated web domain. But the company plans on shutting off the domain after October 2022. “After that time, users will be redirected to Chat on the web.”
For most users, the company automatically transferred their old Hangouts conversations to the Chat app, which began directly integrating into Gmail last year. However, Google says “some conversations or portions of conversations won’t automatically migrate from Hangouts to Chat.” Affected users will receive an email with more information about this around September.
If you’d like to manually save the conservations, you can use the Google Takeout function to save a copy. But it’ll need to be done by November 2022 at the latest, when data will be erased. The company’s support document has more information on how this can be done.
Not everyone may like the change. But Google is promising enhancements are on the way for its Chat app. “We have big ambitions for the future of Chat, and over the coming months you'll see even more features like direct calling, in-line threading in Spaces and the ability to share and view multiple images,” the company added.